With computing devices getting more and more ubiquitous and mobile, and with user-data becoming more distributed amongst laptops, desktops, servers, and handhelds, the theft of processor based devices, from desktops to mobile devices, has also increased. In response, the computing industry has developed various techniques to physically recover processor based devices, but typically these techniques employ synchronous protocols requiring a theft-management server to be in constant communication with remote devices. Thus, these techniques are often unable to address the situations where the theft-management server is located behind a firewall, and the remote devices may operate out of the environment protected by the firewall. Likewise, these techniques are unable to address the situations where the devices to be protected may not have network access at times.